Existing computer and internet security such as cryptographic processes, tokens, dongles, so-called “uncopyable media,” passwords, and various executable software protection schemes fail to prevent identity fraud. Such methods are incapable of ensuring that the person or entity at each end of a transaction is who he says he is. At the center of the problem are those individuals who steal other persons' identities so as to perform fraud, pranks, vandalism, espionage and other illegitimate activities. Thus, a predominant security issue is identity authentication.
While authentication takes various forms, authentication of the individual is particularly desirable. That is authentication directed to verifying that the individual seeking a benefit or pursuing a transaction is in fact who that individual claims to be, and not an impersonator. This authentication relies on verification being performed at or above a predetermined minimum level of confidence.
Traditional methods of authenticating individuals have relied primarily on secret passwords, identification cards, photographic identification, or the like. Password-only authentication can be implemented entirely in software. However, password-only authentication has a number of disadvantages. For example, a password's viability is enhanced, among other ways, by increasing its length, by controlling its composition and by it being frequently changed. This, however, is cumbersome and, additionally, passwords can be lost or stolen, particularly written passwords. Passwords can be inadvertently disclosed to crackers via various ploys, such as observing the password's entry on a keyboard. Moreover, passwords can be intercepted as they are transported from the user to a desired computer server. Consequently, password-only authentication fails to provide adequate security. The shortcomings inherent with the conventional security measures have prompted an increasing interest in biometric security technology. That is, verifying a person's identity by personal biological characteristics, such as voice printing, finger printing, iris scans, or deoxyribonucleic acid (“DNA”) sequence matching.
Surprisingly, even though numerous patents and patent applications include the term DNA as a biometric identifier (see for example U.S. patent application Ser. No. 6,871,287 which utilizes the term “DNA mapping” once but does not enable DNA mapping as a biometric to verify the identity of a person), it appears that a significant number of problems remain with respect to defining, obtaining and using DNA as a biometric identifier to verify the identity of a person.
A significant problem with using DNA as a biometric identifier can be that no attempt is made to cross-reference the user's alphanumeric identity data (i.e., name, address, Social Security number, etc.) against a database of identities which can determine, to a high degree of certainty, whether the alphanumeric identity data being offered with the biometric identity data is suspicious or subject to fraud. Without such cross-checking, a person submitting a biometric exemplar together with stolen alphanumeric identity data cannot be recognized as the fraud that he is by the anonymous computer systems which are so prevalent today.
Another significant problem with using DNA as a biometric identifier can be that no standardized region of the human genome has been identified which can be amplified using a limited set of DNA primers which generates an amplified DNA region of sufficiently high degree of variability among persons to allow identity verification with one-hundred percent certainty.
Another significant problem with using DNA as a biometric identifier can be that no method of personal identification includes a DNA as a biometric identifier to verify the familial connection to maternal relations with one hundred percent certainty.
Another significant problem with using DNA as a biometric identifier can be that no method of personal identification includes a DNA biometeric identifier which allows differentiation and identification of identical twins.
The inventive personal identity security system described herein addresses each of these problems.